Monday, November 28, 2011

Back to the whole potty training thing ...

Thanksgiving weekend being a nice, long weekend, I decided to start poking the sleeping bear that I like to call "training Karl to use a potty." Simple.

Alright. So the girls were easy to train. And Karl shows no interest. But I've got a plan ...

~ Immediately following the week he'll spend away at his grandparents' house, I'm doing this thing. ALL diapers will be thrown out in a big ceremony. The changing table will be turned into a toy shelf. The underwear purchased as one of his xmas presents will be displayed. The waterproof mattress pad will be put on the bed. Another pad will be ready in waiting. The washer and dryer will be put on stand by. I will expect plenty of wet and dirty clothes. I will plan on many trips to the potty. No pullups will be used at night because of my opinion of their tendency to put a wrench, at times, into training, especially night time.

Back to thanksgiving's long weekend. I took Karl to the potty maybe 50 times. He'd comply and sit or stand, sometimes even "pushing out" a little fart, but nothing else was ever created. Okay, at least the boy is allowing me to get him to sit and/or stand at the toilet.

When he would ~try~, I'd smother him with praise and adoration. But at the end of each 'visit', he'd look at me and tell me he was done.

Okay. So he tried. I'll take that over nothing.

At the end of the weekend, he just finished another round of "trying" but telling me there wasn't any pee waiting to come out. Again, I broke out into applause.

As I'm grabbing a diaper to put him back into, I say, in passing, "Yeah Karl, just think, when you actually PEE ~IN THE~ POTTY, I'm going to give you ice cream."

"ICE CREAM?" he questions, suddenly very interested.

"Yup. Ice cream. How awesome is that?"

"Okay. I'll go potty". And still pantless, he sits back down on the potty he just, moments ago, was sitting on.

And he pees.

"Ice cream now? WOOHOO!!!"


That proves a few things...
He knows damn well how to pee on that potty.
I'm a dumbass.

Am I missing anything?

7 comments:

Heather said...

My daughter and my best friend's daughter were both potty trained with M&Ms. Small doses of chocolate for actually doing something on the potty. It works!

The Captain's Wife said...

we used M&M's. 3 for pee, 5 for poop. worked like a charm!

Shannon said...

Yay Karl!! Sometimes it's tricky to find that one thing they'll do anything for. We also used M&M's for Ella. Sam just went on his own and didn't need anything, whew.

Lisa said...

You didn't miss a thing! Most kids are unbelievably smart and learn how to manipulate early.

There are very few things in their life they can control... food, sleep and their use of the potty. It was simply Karl reminding you that you can't force him to do it. A few days of getting his clothes wet should cure him of that. Good luck!

Christina said...

Good luck!! Annika is not fooled at all by "treats". She just likes to sit on the potty and play around and then pees in her diaper 5 minutes later...grrrr...

Sarah said...

LOL! I am looking forward to potty training Elise because everyone has told me girls are easier. And she also seems ahead of the game (on most aspects) compared to her brother at the same age.

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